Crash probe focuses on engine failure

Posted: Tuesday, May 08, 2007

MBANGA-PONGO, Cameroon - The searchers - some soldiers in camouflage and red berets, others barefoot villagers in shorts and T-shirts - drove as far as they could into a dense mangrove swamp, then set out on foot, crawling through mud until they found signs of so many lost lives.

A white tennis shoe. A black purse of braided leather. A length of orange and blue cloth that a woman might have worn as a skirt. Shredded debris hanging from trees.

"It's a scene of horror," said Bernard Atebede, prefect of the town of Vouri near the site where the Kenya-bound jetliner went down. "I saw things that should never be seen. It makes you realize the fragility of life."

He said 20 bodies had been recovered by Monday, adding that DNA testing would have to be used to determine the identities of some victims. Officials said all 114 people aboard Kenya Airlines Flight 507 were killed when the jetliner crashed soon after takeoff Saturday.

Investigators combing through the wreckage Monday focused on the possibility the jet lost power in both engines during a storm and tried to glide back to the airport before plunging nose-first into the swamp.

Recovery workers, some using branches as walking sticks, carried bodies and body parts on stretchers during a 20-minute hike from the crash site to ambulances on the nearest road, itself just a muddy track. Tree trunks were chopped down and placed over expanses of swampland to make the walk easier.

After being delayed an hour by storms, the Nairobi-bound Boeing 737-800 sent a distress signal shortly after takeoff from Douala early Saturday, then lost contact 11 to 13 minutes later. It took searchers more than 40 hours to find the wreckage, most of it submerged in murky orange-brown water and concealed by a canopy of trees.

"The plane fell head first. Its nose was buried in the mangrove swamp," said Thomas Sobakam, chief of meteorology for the Douala airport. He said the plane disintegrated on impact.

There were no survivors, said Luc Ndjodo, a local official. "We assume that a large part of the plane is under water. I saw only pieces."

A coast guard officer, Capt. Francis Ekosso, said late Monday that one of the two flight recorders had been found, a development that could help investigators determine what happened to Flight 507. He did not know the device's condition or whether it was the data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder.

Officials said it was too early to tell what caused the crash, but investigators concentrated on the stormy weather as a possible contributor.